Recent reviews by GrobeMan

So a "secret" p2w punch "emote" - that actually allows those who buy the pass to punch people - is available. Along with another that allows grabbing other players and tossing them off of cliffs apparently (have not seen that one in action, but have been punched to death).

An utter garbage thing to do to the rest of the player base. One of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever seen. Everyone who has played this is now dumber for having put up with it.

I retract my earlier statements, award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Still somehow provides more rewards and is less toxic to play than Fall Guys, but much more limited and lower quality.

It's a great game... when you can get into a match.

If you like Bomberman, and/or like Battle Royale, and/or like 2D PVP games... and you have a lot of patience... then this is a very enjoyable game.

The only real problem is the matchmaking, and it is a pretty big problem. Let me assure you that my play time greatly exaggerates my actual time actually playing. Trying to get into the default 64 player battle royale matches (which are excellent once you get in) only works maybe 1 out of 6 times, with the other 5 eventually giving you an error message. It also takes awhile for each attempt. It seems a little better at peak times, and a little worse at off hours. It's maybe a little less bad getting into the "Standard" matches, for which only one 8 player level and match type are available at a time. If you have a lot of other things you should be doing, like I do, then you can make the best of it (I just perform other tasks while waiting to get into a match), although obviously it would be better if it, you know, worked properly.

Once you get in, it plays very well. Lag doesn't seem to be much of a problem (it's exists, but it's barely noticeable). The 64 player matches are great fun, you start locked in one room with 3 others and then move around in limited movement phases as timers run down and rooms are closed. Eventually there can be only one. Standard battles are pretty traditional Bomberman stuff, also good. I haven't had any issues after joining a game, it's only getting there that's a problem.

There are also various characters and a ton of unlockables which may or may not keep you playing. You can customise each character individually with costumes, phrases, different appearances for your bombs, and other cosmetics.

There are a whole bunch of characters that can be unlocked via the Premium DLC. Only a few of them can apparently be unlocked just by playing, but it's really not a big deal.

You have a bunch of regular Bomberman characters available from the start, which is all you really need. Different characters have different stats, and the DLC characters have special abilities, but this doesn't matter as much as you would think. These differences are countered by the fact that those with better stats and abilities are not able to pick up as many upgrades, meaning that eventually the regular Bomberman characters are usually better anyway. Very few people use the DLC characters, and I only saw one instance where the ability seemed potentially game breaking, not even sure because it only happened once. Most can be countered easily enough.

It does suck that you have to buy the DLC to play with friends, but only one person needs to buy it, everyone else can join that person's games for free. The private matches may not suffer the matchmaking issues, I think I saw that in another review, although I haven't bought in as yet so I can't say that for sure. The best thing I can say about the slightly coercive monetisation, is that hopefully it will be enough reason for them to keep the servers running. It does look pretty bad when you have to pay to have the game work properly and/or to play with friends, though.

They do also monetise it a second way via "Bomber Coins" which can be earned in limited quantities, or bought in larger sums. These can be used to directly buy items from the in-game shop, and/or to upgrade to the Gold Battle Pass which gets you a lot more rewards as far as the cosmetics from playing and levelling up. Seems a bit expensive, but then you don't actually need any of that stuff, it's all purely cosmetic.

If you've played Bomberman before, or even have a basic ability to learn the gameplay, you will do just fine. This is the opposite of most Battle Royale games, in that I would not call it very competitive. Without any DLC or anything, I won one of my first few matches. Granted I have played Bomberman games for probably about 35 years, so there's that, but probably about half of the people in the game barely know how to place a bomb much less even try to get powerups. I have seen people win, or more often nearly win, without even placing a bomb. Particularly in the Standard matches, the pacifist strategy is popular (lol). Learn how the game works, and you can do well.

All in all, it's a good game, and if they would fix the matchmaking it would be great.

If you have a few friends to play with, you can get at least an hour or two of fun out of this game, BUT you should be aware that there are some issues. If you're planning to play by yourself (including online), probably give it a pass - although I didn't try.

Given the mixed reviews my friends and I really weren't expecting much, but we got it cheap on sale and were pleasantly surprised that we did actually have some solid fun with it, if only for a little while. Turns out that trying to grab all the treasure and then beating more treasure out of your friends while dodging hazards is a pretty good time. We played with it set to both Linear and Party Mode, by the way.

On the other hand, some glaring issues were present. People sometimes get disconnected, and when they rejoin (which is at least possible) they're stuck as a ghost until the entire match is over. Matches don't go on too long, but it's still painful. As mentioned in other reviews, one of the minigames takes place on a map where either the floor is missing, or the spawn points are not set properly - you all appear over an open area and immediately fall to your deaths. That's just one, though, the rest are fine and generally enjoyable.

The selection is a bit limited for a minigame-based game (there's no moving around a board or anything), there are maybe around 10 minigames and that one is bugged. There are also issues with character and weapon unlocks, I earned a character that was then not available to me, and we all earned weapons that could be selected, but remained invisible. The last issue is another big one - the game will wind up your CPU and/or GPU. I left it running awhile to earn all the card drops, and by the time I came back my computer sounded like a jet trying to take off. My machine is quite powerful, so it's not a requirements issue, and my friends all noticed the same problem with high processor usage while we were playing. Hopefully it's just bad code and not crypto mining...

Anyway, despite all the issues we did have fun, so on the condition that you get it on sale, keep your expectations low and don't expect to enjoy it for a long time, I'll give it a recommendation anyway.

It's too late for me, save yourself!

Do not pay money for this game. It's going free to play on June 21st on the Epic Store. Until then, if you buy it on Steam, you'll be forced to link your Steam account to an Epic account in order to play it, which is disgusting (it wasn't always that way, and should have remained optional).

The game itself can be fun, but can get quite toxic. While it seems initially inviting to new players, the truth is it's addictive and you'll probably get murdered fairly often.

By murdered, I'm referring to the grabbing mechanic, which is constantly abused in frustrating ways. Suddenly you plummet to your death because someone thought it was funny or advantageous to them to give you a quick grab - there's often nothing you can do, and this can often cost you a win. The developers have not only allowed but effectively condoned and even encouraged this.

By addictive, I mean the rewards and daily challenges are set up in such a way to keep you playing, trying to earn outfits, colours, emotes and so on. It can easily eat up a lot of your time and take you away from doing actual things. Yes, I'm hopelessly addicted. You were warned.

This game surprises you. What seems like a pixel farming game, turns out to have quite a bit of depth and variety, which can be played in a number of different ways. You have farming, village/social life, fishing, adventuring (basically dungeon delving in the mines), and more - that's just what I've discovered so far in a few hours - and you can play them in any combination. Focus on what you like, ignore what you don't enjoy. I'm just getting started, but I'm enjoying it so far. It's also better with friends!

Adventure and open world together at last, with an AMAZING amount of content for such a deceptively simple LOOKING game. Sandbox style crafting backed up with a not-so-explicit adventure/story arc and awesome boss fights. After nearly 500 hours in the game there's still plenty left to do, and that's before even getting into the vast array of mods and other custom content. The developer is STILL updating it regularly, with another major update yet to come! Can't recommend it enough!

I've spent over *1700 hours* over MANY YEARS now playing this game, and it remains among my favourite games of ALL TIME. With various gameplay modes and an incredible amount of custom content available to explore, you can always mix it up when you start to get bored of the regular game. Watch out for jerks in multiplayer, but you can always vote to kick them from the game (or even run your own server if you really want to control things). Very highly recommended!